Pride and Ownership

So this is a two part blog. Part one is a book review and part two is an essay I was required to write that refers to the book.

Part 1- Book review:

As I mentioned in a previous blog I have recently been selected as a new recruit with the City of Charleston fire department. As part of my moving up in the fire service I was required to read this book and write a short essay on it before my first day of recruit school. 

The book was one I have been wanting to read but never took the initiative to do so (a move I now regret). If you havent read it, stop reading this and go get it. Any fireman who owns it would be happy to loan it to you. Granted you dont mark it up and fold the pages. In that case youll be buying a new book. 

The book refers to exactly what the cover states. Its about Pride and ownership, as it refers to the love we have (or have lost) for the job. Chief Lasky puts it bluntly and gives a good kick in the side to most of us. This guy really, and I mean really loves his job. Chief writes in his book how we seem to have lost what it truly means to be a firefighter, how all the old timers and mentors are fading out, leaving us (and I speak for myself) to learn all the tips and tricks past down over the years on our own. But also what we lose with the generation change is our traditions. Chief goes on to give plently of examples as to how we can upkeep these traditions, building morale, and not forgetting what it means to be in the fire service.

The book is absolutely perfect for someone just getting into the fire service all the way up to the chief of chiefs and everyone in between. If you love your job youll be absolutely fired up (pun intended) after reading this.

My good friend and great fireman Dave Werner over at headsupfirefighting says, "its a great book, but unfortunately to many people read it and dont know what to do with it". What he means is its easy to read the book and look at all the great pictures, get fired up, put it down, and forget what you were fired up about. 

So I caution you, read the book, but fight for the job. Fight for what he speaks of. Learn to love the job or as he bluntly puts it "Get out".

Part 2- Essay:

As I mentioned i was required to write a short essay on what pride and ownership means to me in relation to the fire service. I could write for days on the subject but they only asked for 500 words so I figured I wouldnt make it too long. Its as follows:

Last week this essay changed. I had something said to me that I had never heard another person say before. Something that stirred a wave of emotion and helped me truly see the pride and love I have for my job. What was said to me is "I have never really looked at fighting fire as that big of a deal" Implying that my job required no risk, knowledge, skill, or inherent danger to perform. The moments following this quote are more of a blur than anything because my mind was racing with memories of my own experiences fighting fire, memories of my brothers and myself putting our lives on the line, getting burned, risking going home to our wives, and memories of brothers sacrificed, for what? For people who think what we do is not "that big of a deal"?

I had finished the book Pride and Ownership a few days prior and was still on a high after reading it so that may have lead to the many emotions i felt. But what truly became evident was the amount of pride I have for this job.

Pride is described as:

The quality or state of being proud: as

a : inordinate self-esteem

b : a reasonable or justifiable self-respect

c : delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship.

For myself, pride as it relates to the fire service is a justifiable self respect, and delight of elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship.

The justifiable self respect comes from what Chief Lasky says regarding Firefighters, he states we are “the jack of all trades, but were also the masters of them all”. Through the knowledge and skills one acquires on the job its only right to have respect for yourself and the members of your department. For me the delight of elation arising from an act is the feeling I get when a call goes well, you put your skills to work, and they play out how you trained. When it arises from some possession, thats how I feel when I make the day my day. Its also the possession of the job, telling someone I am a firefighter implies possession and its true. I am my job, I have to be. And the elation I get from the relationship is like no other. Its one the people who do not know, never will. Its the brotherhood that comes with living one third of your life away from your first family to live with another.

Now when I think of ownership I think of that possession I talked about. Every day hundreds of thousands of firemen and women show up to work and as Quintus Horatius Flaccus said in 65 BC, Carpe Diem. Every day we must seize the day, especially at the firehouse. Because that shift is our shift, the trucks are our trucks, the tools are our tools. The constituents of our city depend on us to treat it like so. The firehouse is literally our home away from home and ownership comes naturally when the parts of pride we discussed have truly blossomed inside. The pride and the ownership of the job go hand in hand and we need to learn to treat it like so. A person who either does not know the job or does not have the pride most of us feel may not have felt the overwhelming emotion I felt when someone so blatantly discredited the work we do on a daily basis. When we truly come to fruition with the pride we all need to have in our job is the day when we treat the task at hand as the most important task of the day. No matter how trivial it may seem. Because how we treat the everyday is how we will react on the one day.  

Remember, we have the best job in the world. Be proud of that.